What is "falling" together with the boss is the entire home furnishing industry.

On July 27, Wang Linpeng, the actual controller, chairman, and CEO of Juranzhijia (formerly Juranzhijia Home), was reported to have died after jumping from a building, causing a stir in the home furnishing circle.

Public information released by Juranzhijia shows that Wang Linpeng was just released from detention on July 23 and "returned to his post and resumed normal duties." Just four days later, Wang Linpeng chose to end his life by jumping.

Affected by this news, on July 28, Juranzhijia's stock price opened 10.1% lower. Subsequently, the stock price rebounded somewhat and closed at 2.94 yuan per share, with a market value evaporation of about 1.37 billion yuan in one day.

Wang Linpeng, from the Internet

Ten days before this incident, on July 17, Zeng Yuzhou, the founder of Liangjiaju, a leading integrated home furnishing enterprise in South China with a market value of about 800 million yuan, "fell to his death."

The "two suicides in one month" in the home furnishing industry have raised concerns among practitioners about the overall crisis in the home furnishing industry.

A home furnishing practitioner left a message online, saying, "The industry is really more important than expertise."

However, the specific reasons for the accidental deaths of Wang Linpeng and Zeng Yuzhou are different.

 01 

Wang Linpeng was detained for investigation by the Supervision Commission of Jianghan District, Wuhan City, in April this year. According to industry speculation, Wang's investigation this time may be related to Juranzhijia's backdoor listing through the "snake swallowing the elephant" operation by borrowing the shell of Wuhan Zhongshang (000785.SZ) in 2019.

Wang Linpeng was the key person in charge of Juranzhijia's backdoor listing. After Juranzhijia went public in December 2019, Wang Linpeng's net worth soared, and he became the richest man in Hubei. At the same time, during the listing process, Wang cashed out about 5 billion yuan through equity transfer, taking both the company's control and cash.

However, the official news did not disclose the specific charges for Wang Linpeng's detention and investigation in April this year.

Juranzhijia's announcement

Zeng Yuzhou's accident is directly related to the decline of the home furnishing industry.

On the day after Zeng Yuzhou's fall, on July 18, all stores of Liangjiaju posted a "Suspension of Business Notice," stating that "due to the long - term losses of Liangjiaju's related companies affected by the real estate industry, they are now insolvent and unable to continue operating. After the company's decision, it will stop operating from now on. Please creditors conduct debt verification and confirmation work with the relevant companies, and the company will actively cooperate with the bankruptcy liquidation work at the same time."

On July 20, Liangjiaju officially started the work of registering creditors' rights.

Liangjiaju's official announcement

Liangjiaju started as a building materials supermarket. After 2010, it achieved rapid growth by cooperating with real estate developers on model rooms. In 2021, when the real estate industry began to decline, Liangjiaju fully accelerated its scale expansion. At its peak, it opened a new store every week.

Now, Zeng Yuzhou has left hundreds of millions of yuan in debt and left resolutely.

 02  

What is "falling" together with the bosses is the entire home furnishing industry.

In addition to the deaths of Wang Linpeng of Juranzhijia and Zeng Yuzhou of Liangjiaju, there have been frequent accidents in the home furnishing industry recently. The founders of Macalline and Fushengmei have been detained for investigation, and their past capital operations may be exposed.

For the leaders of home furnishing enterprises, they are facing the dual pressures of increased operating pressure due to the industry downturn and the liquidation of illegal operations in the development history.

According to the statistics compiled by Home Furnishing New Paradigm, from January to June this year, nearly 90 companies related to "decoration" went bankrupt, a nearly 70% increase compared with the same period last year. The industry has been accelerating its decline since 2022, and home decoration enterprises are in deep trouble. Large - scale enterprises such as Zhuifaner, Haohaozhuzhu, and Dongyirisheng have also experienced successive crises.

Recently, Shengdu Decoration, which relies on the Beike platform, has also closed many direct - operated stores in cities such as Wuhu, Taizhou, Yangzhou (including Guangling and Jiangdu), and Yizheng, shrinking its layout. It is reported that stores with less than 30 orders per month, ROI below the 1.5 break - even line, and stores in cities where Beike is not present will be the main targets for contraction.

The overall shrinkage of the home decoration industry is constantly affecting enterprises in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain.

Taking the home furnishing malls in the downstream as an example, leading enterprises such as Juranzhijia, Macalline, and Fushengmei have all shown a significant downward trend in profits since 2021.

Among them, Juranzhijia's net profits from 2021 to 2024 were 2.378 billion yuan, 1.72 billion yuan, 1.34 billion yuan, and 0.835 billion yuan respectively, showing a continuous decline for four years. The net sales profit margin has dropped to about one - third of that in 2021.

Fushengmei's net profits from 2021 to 2024 were 0.936 billion yuan, 0.804 billion yuan, 0.826 billion yuan, and 0.703 billion yuan respectively, also in a downward trend.

Macalline suffered significant losses. Its net profits from 2021 to 2024 were 2.047 billion yuan, 0.749 billion yuan, - 2.216 billion yuan, and - 2.983 billion yuan respectively.

In 2024, the three major malls all experienced a decline in revenue. Juranzhijia's revenue was 12.966 billion yuan, a 4.04% year - on - year decrease; Macalline's revenue was 7.821 billion yuan, a sharp 32.08% year - on - year decline; Fushengmei's revenue was 1.43 billion yuan, a 6.18% year - on - year decrease.

At the same time, home furnishing malls are also facing a liquidity crisis.

Juranzhijia's short - term debt reached 4.7 billion yuan in 2024, far exceeding the book funds of 2.3 billion yuan, greatly increasing the operating pressure.

As of the end of 2024, Macalline's total liabilities were 67.92 billion yuan, including 30.8 billion yuan in short - term debt, while the book cash was only 3.58 billion yuan.

Events such as "suicide" and detention for investigation may further intensify the industry's trust crisis.

The upstream industrial chain of home decoration is also facing great pressure from the industry shrinkage. Taking the ceramic field as an example, data released by the China Building Sanitary Ceramics Association shows that in 2024, the national ceramic tile production continued the downward trend, reaching 5.91 billion square meters, a 12.08% decrease compared with 2023.

Leading ceramic enterprises are also facing the dual squeeze of declining sales and rising inventories. In 2024, the total sales volume of five leading ceramic enterprises, including Dongpeng Holdings, Mona Lisa, Diou Home, Tian'an New Materials, and Yuexin Health, was 418 million square meters, the total output was 384 million square meters, and the total inventory was 99.604 million square meters. The book value of inventory goods totaled 2.866 billion yuan.

According to public data, in 2024, the number of above - scale enterprises in the building ceramic industry was 993, a decrease of 29 compared with 2023. The number of national building ceramic production lines decreased to 2,193, with an exit rate of 11.75%.

Since 2025, eight ceramic enterprises have officially announced bankruptcy.

Against the background of the shrinking domestic market, ceramic enterprises have also put forward the slogan of "going global or being eliminated," but the actual situation is not optimistic. According to statistics from China Ceramics Network, in 2024, China's ceramic tile export volume was 600 million square meters, a slight 2.86% decrease compared with last year's 618 million square meters. However, due to the export unit price dropping to 5.40 US dollars per square meter, the export value decreased from 4.856 billion US dollars to 3.241 billion US dollars, a year - on - year decrease of 33.26%, hitting a new low in the past eight years. The product going global is also caught in a price - cutting competition dilemma.

The development trajectories of industries such as panels and accessories are similar to that of ceramics. An extreme stress test of the large - scale home furnishing industry is underway.

 03 

This is not the first time the large - scale home furnishing industry has faced a crisis.

After 2016, in the face of the impact of the mobile Internet, Wang Linpeng chose to lead Juranzhijia to embrace the Internet.

He said, "We operators of physical businesses have had a tough time. We have been beaten badly by online platforms before. Summing up the reasons, we people in the offline business are like drivers on the ground. We only drive to serve customers. When customers and traffic go online, we don't know what to do. Now, the impact of e - commerce platforms on our offline physical businesses is like an air force attack on the army. So how can the physical business thrive?"

As a practical action to embrace the Internet, in 2018, Wang Linpeng led the strategic cooperation between Juranzhijia and Alibaba, accepting an investment of 5.453 billion yuan from Alibaba and its affiliated parties.

This move greatly increased Juranzhijia's valuation and initiated new retail explorations such as smart stores, city - specific websites, and online malls in terms of business models. However, it also exposed the company to the power of capital, getting caught up in its influence and temptation. Subsequently, a series of capital games ultimately led to today's situation.

The Buddhist scriptures say: All laws are empty, but cause and effect are real.

Although the present is difficult, I hope that all practitioners in the industry can survive the current situation and see a better future.